Opening to the East, EU Places
Expansion Ahead of Integration

STRASBOURG, France -- The European Union is starting to look like the Tour de France -- with 15 members and 11 candidate countries furiously pedaling in the same direction, but splitting into packs.

That's the upshot of the European Commission's formal recommendation on Wednesday to invite six countries -- Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus -- to start membership talks with the EU, with a view toward...